The Legend of Taisho
by Jet556
Summary: During the Hundred Year War Taisho, younger brother to the Pretender to the Throne of the Fire Nation, runs away from home feeling that his brother has betrayed their late father, whom served under General Iroh, by giving Fire Lord Ozai a phoney prediction at his coronation as well as due to a large amount of discomfort at home.
1. The Boy in the Iceberg

**Welcome everyone. When I finished "Reign Predictions" I wondered if the next story I wrote should have Chulalongkorn, the Pretender to the Throne to the Fire Nation, as the protagonist and have it be about him under Zuko's reign during the comics. I felt his younger brother Taisho's adventures would be more interesting. Since they take place during the show itself, the chapters will be named after the episodes to tell just when they are set. The uniform the House of Mongkut wears is meant to be the same worn by the Fire Nation soldiers in the unaired pilot. Enjoy and review.**

 **The Boy in the Iceberg**

The House of Mongkut was a noble military family. Every Pretender to the Throne had come from that family ever since Mongkut had been given the title by Sozin himself. Mongkut himself had not served in the Hundred Year War as he had been dead forty-two years old by the time it had started. The latest Pretender to the Throne Chulalongkorn, Mongkut's descendant, refused to take part in the war on the grounds that Mongkut himself never participated in the war so why should he?

The House of Mongkut was full of redheads. It was solely a family of redheads in fact. Thus Taisho, the thirteen-year old younger brother of Chulalongkorn, was a red head as well. He was shorter than his twenty-year old brother who stood at a height of five feet and seven inches. He was five feet and two inches in fact. Chulalongkorn shared a height with their grandfather Meiji, a Pretender to the Throne during Azulon's first forty-four years, and Taisho would likely grow to the same height. He shared his brother's aquiline nose and strong jaw.

As a military family, the House of Mongkut usually wore a military uniform but one of their own design. Chulalongkorn and Taisho wore such a uniform.

In their home, Chulalongkorn stood opposite of Taisho. Chulalongkorn was quite comfortable in his ancestral home. Among the ambrosial aftershaves of incense and agile chambers of alabaster cobble he was happy. His accessories and assets he knew he was a boy of the awesome account that was written in the scrolls kept in this very house.

Taisho however could not have been anymore uncomfortable. As a second born son he felt like he was in the shadow of not just Chulalongkorn but every other Pretender to the Throne who had come before. Every Pretender to the Throne had been a firstborn son. Taisho was not destined for greatness and he knew it. He may have been born great, the son of a noble military family, but he would never achieve greatness, he would never have greatness thrust upon him.

Taisho breathed heavily. He was shaking. His eyes were darting. His discomfort was evident to Chulalongkorn and everyone else who saw him.

"Perhaps you should go to Ember Island to calm down." Said Chulalongkorn. He had a deeply melodic basso voice. Mongkut's voice had been the exact same. In contrast Meiji's had been a rich baritone.

And Taisho's voice? If he was a singer he'd be a tenor. "I don't know if going there will help."

"What will calm you down then?" asked Chulalongkorn. "What is the matter?"

"Chula, I don't think you could ever understand." Replied Taisho. "Why did you want to see me?"

"Because everyone has noticed how you have been lately. This discomfort is very strange. What is the reason for it?"

"Something you wouldn't understand!"

"Taisho, I became Pretender to the Throne and head of our family at fifteen. I have a better understanding of hardship than you think."

"You are firstborn, Chula! You'd never understand!"

"If this is about feeling like in my shadow, get over it. Fire Lord Ozai was second born and look at him now!" Chulalongkorn did have a point. Ozai achieved greatness when he probably wouldn't have until the death of the firstborn Iroh.

"Our father died alongside Prince Lu Ten and you use the latter's uncle as an example to make me comfortable?" asked Taisho, feeling not a little angered at this.

"I may not like the man but the point is that the second born son Ozai is Fire Lord now instead of the firstborn Iroh."

"Our father served under General Iroh! You should have supported Iroh's claim to the throne not give Ozai a phony prediction!" And with that, Taisho stormed off. He left the room, exited the house completely.

Chulalongkorn merely took a breath. Not just a breath but a deep breath! He would try talking to Taisho later.


	2. The Avatar Returns

**Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.**

 **The Avatar Returns**

Taisho did not return to his family's home. He merely stood by a river looking into it. His armor he had thrown into the river, he was quitting nobility, he was quitting the military in short he was quitting his family.

If Chulalongkorn was willing to give Fire Lord Ozai a phony prediction instead of try and put General Iroh on the throne then what reason did he have to stay? Their father had died alongside Lu Ten and Chulalongkorn was not willing to accept Iroh's birthright?

Taisho was young and proud. With his pride came an idiocy. Due to the death of Lu Ten, Iroh's only son, Iroh's bloodline had indeed ended unless Iroh married again and had more children. Iroh was fifty-nine years old when Lu Ten died and who knew how long Iroh would live without issue? As his younger brother, Ozai would have been Iroh's heir if he became Fire Lord and even then Ozai succeeding Azulon was a pragmatic solution to continuing Azulon's bloodline.

Still, Taisho could not see that. He only saw a betrayal.

As the boy brooded and fumed as he grew angrier and angrier as he thought it over, there was a question that came to his mind. Why? Why was he acting this way? Chulalongkorn didn't meet his father until he was fourteen years old, thus as Chulalongkorn was Taisho's older brother he himself had not met his father until he was seven.

Their father had been on campaign alongside General Iroh and Prince Lu Ten quite often. Their father had only ever thought of sending for their mother, never all of them. During their father's brief return to the Fire Nation, Chulalongkorn had asked their father why he had taken so long to come and see him. Their father's answer?

"I was fourteen when I met my father Meiji. The firstborn must ever be fourteen when he meets the Pretender to the Throne, his father."

Their father had been an old man. Their father had been older than General Iroh. Their father had been seventy-one when they met him and seventy-two when he died. Such marriages were not uncommon in their family.

Mongkut had married late in life. He was forty-seven when he wed the forty-five year old Amarindra. Their son, Meiji's father had been born two years later.

Meiji had been forced into an arranged marriage at the age of fifteen to the forty-two year old Sri. A son was born once Meiji had come of age.

After Sri's death at the age of sixty-nine, Meiji remarried. At the age of forty-two, he married the sixteen year old Somanass. She died in childbirth a year later. Their son lived.

Meiji them married a third time at the age of forty-three to the seventeen year old Debsirindra. She gave Meiji four children. She died after eleven years of marriage.

Meiji married a final time at fifty-four years to the twenty-three year old Phannarai. She gave birth to one child, Meiji's youngest son. Meiji died at the age of fifty-nine of a heart attack on campaign with Azulon.

Chulalongkorn was married himself. At fifteen he was forced into an arranged marriage to the twenty year old Shoken, a redhead as well. When Chulalongkorn said there were no redheads outside his family, he included Shoken into this as she had married into their family. Despite being forced into an arranged marriage, they were happy together.

Taisho had only one memory of his father. That one time he met him was it. He might as well have been a child of Meiji's final marriage because of how little time he had with his father.

As Taisho finished his thinking, he merely said a few words: "Out into the world I go."


End file.
